He says there is still a ban on using wood, charcoal or other solid fuel to light fires in pine plantations near Bombala over summer.

“Well the fire risk is abated significantly,” Mr Linehan said.

“It was mostly coming out of Victoria.

“They've had some pretty sizeable fires just south of the border.

“ There was a very real threat and some of the modelling was showing that those fires were going to come across the border the weekend before last so we acted ahead of that and on that advice and now that everything's under control it's time to reopen them.”